Monday, December 28, 2015

My Two New Favorite Things- Starch and Elmer's Washable Glue- Part 1, Starch

STARCH
Recently there was a question posted on one of the pages that I follow on Facebook regarding what type of starch or stabilizer is used by fellow quilters. Overwhelmingly did people say Best Press. I must say, that I disagree.

I started using a Best Press many years ago but only used it intermittently. About a year ago I was at a local quilt shop and the owner told me that she starched and used heavy starch. After that my life was changed!

Being a frugal person, I DO NOT like to throw anything away, including a partially used bottle of Best Press. So I was using the Best Press, just to use it up until the following happened. This is what finally convinced me that Best Press is not the best...

If you don't already know, and why would you, I do not like to pin. More on this in the next part but that is one reason why I love Elmer's Washable Glue!

Here are 2 pictures,

The one on the left, the light fabric was pressed with Best Press. In the right picture I used starch. You will notice that with the Best Press the fabric stretched, not with the starch. I did not need to pin!

Now I realized that Best Press really doesn't do much or at least I found that it made my fabric stink more than it stabilized the fabric.My Starch Progression...
The first stop on my starch progression was to use spray starch sparingly.

The next step was to spray starch each piece of fabric 3 times. to cut down on flaking This was a hint given by a speaker at one of my quilt meetings. She explained that the reason the starch flakes is because the it has not soaked into the fabric. One sprays, turns over the fabric, then presses; repeat 2 more times. This makes the fabric beautifully stiff. However, there was some flaking but not nearly as much.

After using spray starch for a bit I was not liking the over spray on my floor. I quilt in a carpeted room so easy mopping isn't an option and the thought of bring out the carpet cleaner as frequently as needed was not inviting. So I bought a bottle of liquid starch and put it in an old Best Press bottle, 2:1 water to starch ratio. Again I used the 3 times each side technique. The fabric was nice and stiff but there was still too much over spray.

Final solution is to soak the fabric in starch and water, ring out the starch then press, 1;1 water to starch. Works wonderfully!!!

Silverfish
I know that people are concerned about silverfish. Since I have been using starch, about 1 year, I have not seen any silverfish. From what the speaker said, silverfish are attracted to glutton so make sure whatever starch you use does not contain glutton. When I thought about this I realized that silverfish are in flour but not sugar and I've certainly never seen any by my corn syrup!